Red Panda Zoo
by IRAbramovitz
Summary: Emily insists on going to the zoo, Beca and Chloe have gone before and they can't stop the memories from returning and, in a way, reliving themselves.


_**A/N:**_

 _ **Hey :) sorry if it took long for me to write this one, things have been busy with school and a math test... But i had some time this week so here it is :) I hope you guys enjoy it and please let me know what you thought!**_

 _ **You can contact me in the reviews here, on tumblr [inbal-esh-world] and on twitter [inbalabramovitz / BechloeL].**_

 _ **I want to thank everyone that has read my past fics and has commented, i read and reply to them all. Thank you.**_

 _ **[This one is dedicated to Dree, for giving me this idea and helping me develop it :)]**_

C-

"I wanna go to the zoo! the zooo the zoooo!" Em's voice comes from the top of the stairs as she jumps up and down, clutching her blue rabbit. Beca's head peaks from the laundry-room to my left as she squints and yells back in her usual sarcastic tone- "I'm sorry, didn't hear you. Where did you want to go?" I hear Emily giggle and skip down the stairs as Beca gives me a smug look and I stick out my tongue at her. We're such adults…  
Emily arrives at the last 2 steps and dramatically leans back to gain momentum before jumping to the floor, landing on all fours and jumping back up again with a huge smile on her face- "the zoo!" she repeats as she picks up her rabbit from the floor and runs to me, hugging my legs. "Please mommy!" She pleads with me and I can hear the machine being turned on, Beca is taking her time.

B-

I turn on the dryer and wait a few seconds, staring at the clothes that start turning and turning… "Beca! Get in here and answer your daughter!" Chloe says, I roll my eyes before turning and walking out of the room and into where she's standing with Emily at her legs. I close the door behind me and walk toward them. Em spots me walking toward them and runs to me, catching onto my dangling hand and pulling at it- "Please please please mom!" she says and I can see the want, the need even, in her eyes. This 2 year old sure is persuading… "Alright, fine. We can go to the zoo," I give up, "But we have to go see the red-pandas. Deal?" I add and catch Chloe stifle a laugh as Emily jumps up and down squealing "yayyyyy! THE ZOO! I'M GOING TO THE ZOO!" in the highest voice I have ever heard.

C-

Em squeals her heart out as she hugs our legs tightly and repeats "WE'RE GOING TO THE ZOO!" to herself and to her rabbit. "Okay, Em, relax. You need to be able to sleep tonight so you'll be wide awake for the zoo tomorrow." Beca says as she holds Emily in place and Emily nods enthusiastically and runs toward the stairs to get ready for her bath.  
"Tomorrow, huh?" I ask, smiling at Beca, she looks back at me and suppresses a smile, "Why not?" she answers and follows Emily up the stairs. Just as Beca says those words I can't help but think of the first time we went to the zoo together…

 _Beca was sitting in hers and Amy's room, earphones in, her eyes focused on the task at hand when I made my way up the steps, holding 2 zoo tickets. I was going to wait for her to notice me entering the room, see how long it took, when the stair creaked under me and her head jerked up. "Oh, hey." she says absentmindedly, returning her attention to the laptop that lay on her bedspread. "Hey." I said, getting closer and holding the tickets behind my back. "Whachyou got behind your back?" she asks, not moving her gaze from the screen for even a second, I smile and drop onto her bed. She finally looks up, closing the laptop halfway and raises her eyebrows expectantly. "Well… I have 2 tickets for the zoo tomorrow and I thought you might want to join me…" I announce, as I bring forward the tickets and show her. She looks at them for a few seconds before answering- "Um, okay… I guess. But, Chlo?-" she has a look of slight confusion and I nod, waiting for the question. "why?" she asks, in a way that means she wants to but isn't sure why I do, I smile widely and start getting up. I am a few steps away from her bed when I turn around and say "why not?" before walking down the stair, grinning to myself._

I smile at the memory and lock the door before going upstairs too.

B-

The bath is full and warm when Em is ready to get in. I help her in and she sits down quietly, playing with her barbie, Nemo fish and a mini butterfly net simultaneously, as I fill a cup with water and pour it over her hair. I do that a couple more times, holding my hand on her forehead to stop it from getting into her eyes, when she suddenly looks up at me with the most curious expression on her adorable and chubby face- "mom?" she says, I smile and put down the cup- "Yes, sweetie?" she looks down at the barbie and the fish she has in each hand, her face contorted in concentration before looking back at me and asking- "Can my barbie and Nemo get married?" I watched her, seeing how serious she is and thought for a second before answering- "If they love each other, they can do what they want to do together. And, if they choose to get married- they can get married." Em seems to contemplate the answer for a few seconds before smiling and saying "Okay!" and returning to her toys. I stifle a laugh as I retrieve the cup from the bath and wet her hair once more before using the shampoo.  
As I'm rubbing the shampoo into her soft hair a memory floats to the surface of my mind and I let it engulf me as I wash out the shampoo-

" _Come on, Beca! I want to be there as early as possible so we can see everything!" Chloe voice reaches me from the bottom of the stairs as I pull on a shirt and stifle a yawn. "I'M COMING! I'M COMING!" I yell back, grabbing shoes and hurrying down the stairs. I reach the bottom and she is standing there with a picnic bag on her shoulder, her phone slightly sticking out of her jeans pocket and a sandwich in one hand. I raise my eyebrow at the sandwich as I pull on my shoes, leaning on the wall so I won't fall over, and she holds it out to me- "For you. Breakfast in the car. We have an hour and a half drive to the zoo and *someone* slept in…" she says, emphasizing the someone while pushing the sandwich closer to me, I take it and note she made my favorite. But before I have the chance to ask her how she knew she pulls me out the door and into her car. I buckle up and she backs out of the parking spot, handing me her phone and asking me to type 'Louisiana Zoo' into the GPS and press go. I do as she says and we're off!_

I'm shaken out of my thoughts by Emily, slapping my arm lightly to get my attention, "What is it, Em?" I ask, "You forgot the conditioner." she says and I chuckle- "You're right! How could I possibly forget that?!" and I reach over to put some on my hand and rub in into her hair.

C-

Beca puts Emily to bed and comes into our room a few minutes later- "Got the tickets!" she announces, holding out a page. "Got them online," she says as she plops down onto the bed and shows them to me, "half price!" she exclaims happily and I smile at the page and give it back to her, "Great!" I answer and get up to slide under the covers. Beca follows suit and we lie there on our backs for a minute before I talk- "Hey, remember when we went to the zoo together?" I glance sideways at her and see a small smile on her lips before she says "yeah… It was… interesting." I laugh and turn to my side, leaning my head on my arm and watching her, she turns and does the same, catching my eye and smiling. "It certainly was." I answer and give her a peck on the lips before saying goodnight and turning out the bedside light. Beca is asleep in seconds and I close my eyes slowly, remembering that day 5 years ago…

" _Okay! We're here! We have a map and a list of when animal feeding and petting is… Okay, so where do we start…" I mumble to myself as we make our way into the zoo, Beca in front of me, looking around. "Hey, Chlo?" She asks after a minute of me staring at the map and trying to trace a path that will lead us everywhere, "Yeah?" I reply, still immersed in the map, "Are there any… Red pandas here?" Beca asks, trying her best not to sound too excited but I know her too well, I look up from the map and grin at her "Did you really think I would take you to a zoo that didn't have any?" and she smiles widely, jumping up and down slightly before coughing and resuming looking around as I chuckle and turn back to the map to keep tracing a path. 2 minutes pass and I manage to mark a path for us, I reach out my hand and drag Beca after me to the first place. She grunts a little but follows me nonetheless, she knows it's the only way she'll get to see her precious red pandas._

I fall asleep to the picture of Beca's face when she heard she was going to see red pandas in my mind and to the smell of her sleeping beside me.

B-

The next morning passes in a blur from the minute Emily bursts into our room at 6 o'clock in the morning so that we won't be late until the minute we finally got into the car and we're on our way to Louisiana Zoo. Emily, after much excitement, falls asleep in the car because of how early she woke up and because it was a long drive, meanwhile Chloe hummed along to songs on the radio as I looked out the window for signs to the zoo.  
"THERE!" I said after we did a U turn and drove on the same road twice just to find the sign, Chloe's face lit up and she turned to where the sign said. 2 minutes later we were the first car in the zoo parking lot and I was unbuckling Em while she still slept soundly. Chloe locked the car as I positioned Em in my arms so her head was on my shoulder. It was 9 a.m and the zoo was just about to open, we would be the first ones there. Chloe took my hand and we walked to the entrance, as we reached it I felt Em move slightly and Chloe put her other hand on Em's back and rubbed it as she said soothingly "Em, hon, we're here... It's time to wake up." Emily stirred again before picking up her head, revealing a red spot where her cheek was lying on my shoulder, and smiling tiredly at us. She wriggled slightly and I put her down, she stood between us, taking each of our hands and pulling us to the entrance. We presented our tickets and walked in.

C-

The guard gave us a map and as Beca and I started walking in Emily stopped and looked at him curiously, she was watching his shirt. "monkey?" she asked, pointing at the logo on the top of his shirt, he smiled at her, bent down to her level and said "yes, do you like monkeys?" Emily nodded vigorously and he looked left and pointed somewhere inside the zoo, "they're right over there, you can see all kinds of different kinds of monkeys!" he exclaimed, looking back at Emily's face and seeing her wide and excited eyes, Em looked at him and smiled widely- "Thank you!" she said a little shyly and then ran back to us and started pulling us to where he pointed. We thanked him again and caught up with an excited Em. "Mommy! Mom! Look there they are!" Emily half yelled and half screeched a few seconds later. Beca ran toward her, grabbed her, threw her over her shoulder and ran toward the monkeys, making Emily laugh and giggle hysterically until after Beca put her down and tried to catch her breath. I caught up with them as Beca caught her breath and Emily was still giggling while watching the monkeys. I walked toward Beca and wrapped my arms around her waist from behind her, she leaned her head on mine, on her shoulder, and I whispered "She's just like you." I could feel Beca shivering at the feeling of my hot breath in her ear and I smiled sheepishly. "I still cant believe another Beale got me to go to the zoo willingly." Beca answered sarcastically as we watched Emily gawk at the monkeys, she reminded me so much of Beca…

 _We were past halfway through the tour, just after a nice picnic brunch, when we reached the thing Beca has been waiting for… The Red Pandas. We were close enough to see them and I could feel the excitement radiating off Beca even though she was walking ahead of me. I sped up and caught up to her as she reached the enclosure and searched frantically before spotting a red tail and moving so she can see clearly. She didn't look like the Beca I was used to, she had her hands clasped together in front of her and her eyes were glinting with excitement as she refrained from screeching. I stopped the laugh that was about to burst out of my lips as I moved toward her and followed her gaze. There was an adorable Red Panda lying on a tree and sleeping soundly and another one eating on the side. They truly are adorable. I turned my attention back to Beca just as she asked in awe "isn't that the cutest thing you have ever seen?" I kept watching her and answered "yes… yes it is." absentmindedly still watching her and not the Red Pandas._

Emily suddenly turned around and hopped toward us, "Let's go see the giraffes!" she said, turning immediately to the right and walking along the path, she stopped after a few steps at a sign that had a picture of giraffes on it and an arrow pointing to the left and turned back to us, waiting for us to come along. "I still can't believe she's 2. She acts like a 5 year old…" Beca mumbles as we start toward her.

B-

We were on our way to see the giraffes and we passed by a sign that had a picture of a Red Panda, I caught Chloe watching it and hiding a smile, I couldn't stop the next memory that came to my mind and once again I let it engulf me-

 _I was watching the Red Pandas intently and suddenly felt someone's eyes on me, I jerked quickly to the side and caught a glimpse of Chloe averting her eyes quickly and blushing slightly, watching the little creatures as if they were a test she had to focus on. I bit my lip, watching her and after a few seconds she gave up and looked back at me- she was blushing furiously. I looked into her eyes and felt like I was a cloud in the sky, her eyes were the sky, surrounding and engulfing me, I was just a simple cloud. She looked into my eyes and I felt my breath hitch in my chest, she was looking at me the same way I look at her, like i'm her sky and she's just a cloud. But she isn't, she's THE cloud. She is the only cloud I see, the only one big enough to hold so much love. The only one to be able to contain me. Before I could register what just went through my mind Chloe tore her eyes away from mine, looked down at the floor and backed away. Instinctively I stepped toward her and reached out my hand, it touched hers and she looked back up at me, she had tears in her eyes. I was not going to let it rain, not from sadness-_

I suddenly felt a hand pulling my finger and the memory disappeared, I sighed and looked down for the source of the hand. It was Em. She was pulling me toward the giraffes- "Mom, can I go on your shoulders? I wanna see them!" My mouth twitched into a small smile and I picked her up and onto my shoulders. She placed her hands on my head and pointed forward to get closer to see the giraffes, Chloe was standing there and watching them with a calm look on her face and a light smile on her lips. I stood next to her with Em on my shoulders and watched the baby giraffe eat the leaves off of a tree to our right.

C-

The little baby giraffe was trying to reach a leaf higher up when Em suddenly said "Now we can go see the Red Pandas, mom." Beca chuckled and raised her off of her shoulders, and again Emily stalked off to the next sign and followed it to the Red Pandas.  
After walking for a few more minutes we reached the enclosure and Em climbed onto some rock so she can get a better look at them as Beca and I slowly walked to a familiar spot…

 _Beca pulled me toward her and gave me a hug. She wrapped her arm around me and squeezed tightly, it was a real hug. The kind Beca doesn't give often, I slowly wrapped my arms around her too and lay my head on her shoulder, succeeding in holding back the tears but I sniffle. She loosens her grip on me as soon as I do and leans back to look at me, she reaches her hand out and moves the hair out of my eyes. "Chlo?" she asks sweetly, I look up and at her while nodding slightly. "I love you." she says. I am frozen, I can't seem to see anything but the woman standing in front of me. She's said it before but not in this way, she said it in a friendly or joking way but never like this. I feel frozen but my insides are warm and the butterflies in my stomach awaken and flutter around frantically. Apparently I was frozen for a while because I feel Beca's grip on me loosen even more and she bites her lip. I act faster than I ever thought possible, I take a quick step toward her, grab her and catch her lips in mine. I feel her jump slightly nut relax quickly and kiss me back. She grabs onto my shirt and pulls me in closer than before, my arms are on her back and we are closer than we have ever been before. The kiss is blissful and felt like paradise. After so much waiting here we are. A groan escapes me right before we break apart and take deep breaths, still clutching each other. She watches me through her beautiful eyelashes and after catching my breath I put my hand in hers and gesture to the bathroom nearby- "shall we?" She grins mischievously- "A zoo bathroom? Really?!" I wink at her and pull her along after me, i'm itching to feel her lips against mine again._

Beca is looking toward the bathrooms and I feel my face get warm, I quickly look away and make sure Em is close by. She's watching the Red Pandas silently, I turn my attention back to Beca and see she's watching me.

B-

I smile widely as I see Chloe's face get redder when she turns to me, I pull her in for a hug and then feel someone tapping on my thigh. We look down and see Em, we let go of each other and I pick her up. She stretches her hand out to Chloe and pulls us both into a hug- "thank you, mommies! I love it!" We both smile at her and carry her in between us all the way back to the car.

~We started our relationship with the Red Pandas and we are now, 5 years later, with a family and back with the Red Pandas. They will always be a part of our family. The Red Pandas brought us together and as long as they are there we always will be. Forever.~


End file.
